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Why Doesn’t Cold Calling Work Anymore?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of selling.  Last week, I defined the four trends that I believe will drive sales into the rest of the 21st century, and I’m even hosting a Webinar on those trends on July 6.  One of the dangers of thinking about the future, however, is that you lose sight of what worked in the past and can still work today.  I’m not going to do that.  That’s why this week’s Navigator is going to be about why, if you think cold calling doesn’t work, maybe the problem is you and your skills.

Cold calling is probably the oldest technique for generating new prospects.  It’s taken many forms over the years, but it’s still around.  Should it be?  Spoiler alert – YES.  But you have to be good at it.  Yesterday, I had a cold call that illustrated something I’ve been saying for years:  If you think cold calling doesn’t work anymore, you’re probably lousy at it.  I’m going to tell you about the cold call I received, where he went wrong, and how you can do it right (and why you still should).

Yesterday, I was cold-called by a guy who was selling recruitment services that matched military veterans to employers (a worthwhile cause).  On the face of it, this is probably a guy who should be talked to if you are hiring.  Here’s where he went wrong.

The first time he called, his phone connection was so bad that I couldn’t understand anything he was saying.  He said, “This happened on my last call, let me switch phones and call you back.”  Wait – if it happened on his last call, why didn’t he just stay on the other phone and call me from that one?

When he called back, he introduced himself with his name and company (good so far).  Then, he went into a long spiel about what his company did, and that this was definitely a sales call, that he’d be wanting to talk about getting my hiring business, and could he have 30 seconds?  This spiel took him more than 30 seconds.  I timed it.  So at this point, I just explained that I don’t do hiring because I don’t have a staff.  That’s not 100% true, as I just hired my very own sales executive (the business is growing), but I didn’t have any MORE need for hiring.

Then he asked, “Well, could you tell me who would do all the hiring at Salesforce?  It’s a big company.”  That’s when it dawned on me.  He thought he was calling an executive at Salesforce.  For those of you who haven’t been with me for the nearly 19-year ride of my business (most of you), I’ll give you the backstory.

When I started my business on September 1, 2004, I called it “Salesforce Solutions.”  The idea was not that I worked with the Salesforce CRM, it was that I solve companies’ problems with their own sales forces.  Seemed like a great idea, but it wasn’t, due to marketplace confusion (up to and including calls like this one).  That’s why I rebranded around my own name in 2014 – ten years ago.  This guy had somehow gotten ahold of ten year old data and thought that he was calling an exec with a large company.  I explained his mistake to him, politely, and wished him well.

He is probably thinking, “I don’t know why I’m cold calling – cold calling doesn’t work!”  No.  He’s just very, very bad at it.   Before I give you the four keys to being good at cold calling, however, I want to talk about the elephant that I put in the middle of the room.

If I’m talking about the future of selling, artificial intelligence, what ChatGPT can do, etc., then why am I talking about this old sales technique?  Simple.  First of all, cold call prospecting is STILL the most controllable way that salespeople can build their businesses and attract new customers.  Other strategies, such as networking events, social media, etc., are great and can work, but they are not numerically predictable and controllable.  And we need a method that is.  Cold-call prospecting should be part of your repertoire and routine.

Second – and now we can directly look the elephant in the eyes – cold calling is not (yet) something that AI can do well.  In the article I wrote a few weeks ago, I said that salespeople need to get better at those things that AI cannot do well.  Cold calling is one of those things. By using AI well in things that it’s good at, and then using the time saved to improve your skills at the things it does not do well, you can become the complete package.  With that said, here are the four keys to being good at cold call prospecting:

  1. Test your technology. This means that, if you’re using the phone, make sure that you get a good connection and that you are understandable on the other end of the line.  If you sound like you’re calling from the bottom of an oil well, find a different phone.  You MUST be understandable.  And while we’re on the topic, no damned auto-dialers!  As a call recipient, nothing kills your chances quite like the 2-3 seconds of dead phone line between the time that the call recipient answers and says, “Hello?  HELLO?” and you pick up and start talking.  Use your fingers and dial the phone.
  2. Use a good database. Even the best databases can have about a 10% obsolescence factor – but in this case, “obsolete data” means a year and a half, not ten years.  I think someone would have to be working hard to find data old enough for my past company name.  By the way, here’s a quick hack.  Most good library systems have subscriptions to free database services like ReferenceUSA, Data Axle, A to Z Databases, or the like.  These databases give all pertinent information including contact names.  You must have a NAME to ask for – not “the person who.”
  3. Be concise and powerful. From the time your prospect picks up the phone, you have 15 seconds – MAXIMUM – to give that person a reason to talk to you.  Crap like “How are you today?”, “is this a good time?”, or other babbling uses up that 15 seconds, as well as your prospect’s patience.  Introduce yourself and give ONE powerful sentence that explains how you benefit your customers, and how you could benefit them.  Yes, this requires thinking and refinement.  DO IT.  You could even try getting ChatGPT to help you write the sentence!
  4. Ask a strong question. After giving your one-sentence explanation, ask an open ended question about the prospect’s potential problems and needs to stimulate the discussion.  Then you can ask for an appointment.

If you’re thinking that cold calling doesn’t work, it’s time to get good at prospecting.  Don’t waste your prospects’ time – or yours.

The Top Four Trends That Will Drive Sales Into the Future

Sometimes, you have to stop, take a look around, and take stock of where you have been and where you are going.  For me, that time is right now.  Don’t worry; I’m still the Sales Navigator.  I’m still here to train, coach, hire, assess, and speak.  I love what I do way too much to do anything else!

No, what I’m taking stock of is the sales profession itself. I’ve been saying for years that sales is changing faster than ever before, so pardon me if I sound repetitive – but SALES IS CHANGING FASTER THAN EVER BEFORE.  In fact, it’s changing faster than it was last year, or the year before that.  The reasons are technological, generational, and even cultural.  Essentially, there are four big trends will drive sales into the future, and I plan to be on the forefront of it – which means that if you’re reading this newsletter, you will be, too.  Here they are:

Artificial Intelligence: Transforming the Sales Landscape – Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a game-changer in the sales industry. AI-powered tools will allow you to streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and d a far better job of communicating with your customers. As the use of AI grows, you can use those algorithms to analyze vast amounts of customer data, which in turn helps you to identify patterns, and predict buyer behavior, and create personalized marketing and sales content. Don’t get me wrong.   AI is not magic.  It is not a cure-all.  It is a tool.  It is the most robust tool ever developed for improving sales communication – but it is still a tool, and as such, it is useless without people to utilize it properly.  If it is used properly, well, good grief, the capabilities it gives you are something I couldn’t have even imagined a couple of years ago!

Younger Buyers: A Shift in Sales Dynamics – The rise of the digital generation has given birth to a new breed of buyers – younger, tech-savvy individuals who have grown up in a connected world. These buyers demand personalized experiences, instant access to information, and seamless digital interactions. To succeed in this new era, salespeople must understand and adapt to the needs and preferences of younger buyers. This requires leveraging technology, embracing social selling, and modifying your current ways of customer approach. By harnessing the power of social media, influencers, and content marketing, sales professionals can build trust, engage with younger buyers, and establish long-lasting connections.  One refrain I hear about younger buyers is this:  “Younger buyers don’t want to see salespeople!”  Not true.  They will see salespeople – but when they do, they expect more per-minute value for their time.  They expect you to be on game, informed, and ready to help them do business. And if you aren’t, you probably won’t get a second shot.  I actually empathize with this; as anyone who has ever sold to me can attest, these have been my habits.  Maybe everyone else is catching up to me!

Younger Salespeople: Embracing Fresh Perspectives – Just as younger buyers are shaping the sales landscape, younger salespeople are bringing fresh perspectives and approaches to the profession. These digital natives possess an innate understanding of technology and are quick to adapt to new tools and platforms. Their agility, creativity, and willingness to embrace change can help revolutionize the sales process. However – you MUST invest in training and mentoring these younger salespeople, harnessing their energy and innovation, and you have to be flexible in how you convey that knowledge.  In fact, if you do it right, you can cross-pollinate the tech-savviness of your younger salespeople with the wisdom and experience of seasoned veterans, and make everyone better.  Are there challenges?  Hell, yes.  Sales managers need to up their game in the same way that salespeople do.  But if you do, big wins await you.

Empowered Buyers: The Shift in Power – Here’s the one I’ve been talking about for the past few years.  In the past, we salespeople held the reins, guiding buyers through the purchasing journey. However, the tech revolution has fundamentally altered this dynamic. Today, your buyers have access to an abundance of information at their fingertips. They conduct extensive research, read reviews, and seek recommendations from peers before engaging with a salesperson. In fact, studies show that today’s buyer has completed 57% of his or her buying process before ever seeing a salesperson.  Sales professionals MUST acknowledge this shift in power and adapt accordingly. You are no longer the star of the show – the customer is.  And your “sales process” is worthless.  What matters now is the Buyer’s Journey, and your ability to help the customer navigate their journey.

Spoiler alert:  If you want to succeed, you must embrace these four trends.  When people converse with me at conferences about these four issues, what they mainly do is complain.

“That gosh-darned AI stuff is gonna replace us!”

“Dang kids don’t even wanna talk to salespeople!”

“Young salespeople just won’t go make sales calls!”

“My customers want to call all the shots!”

Look – you (we) can get on board, move forward, and succeed.  Or you (we) can be the old guy yelling, “Get off my lawn!”  As I noted before, each one of these four trends presents opportunity, and each one presents challenge.  How you (we) handle the challenges will dictate whether you can capitalize on the opportunity.

This also doesn’t mean that every sales skill you have learned is worthless.  Unless it’s one of those techniques that depends on manipulating uninformed customers, it probably has a place in your repertoire going forward.  It just needs to be augmented with new skills and capabilities, refined to speak to new buyer preferences, and perhaps rechanneled a bit.

And I’m going to help.  I’ll help with free whitepapers (I’m developing a couple right now), YouTube videos, more of these blog posts, training programs (both in-person and online), and other resources.  The four trends will also impact my Coaching and Hiring Assistance programs.  I’ve talked about the Elements of Sales for several years now; perhaps these four trends are the new Elements of Sales for the future.  And the future is NOW. Let’s navigate them together on our journey to success.

How NOT to Handle it When the Customer Says NO – #nocustomerever Navigation Chart

Proposing and closing is a high-stress moment in selling.  I’ve been there and I understand.  If you’re not just a little amped up when you put a proposal forth, you may need to check your commitment to selling.  I’ve been in selling for a long time, and I still get excited!

That means that when the customer says “no,” (and you will always have customers that say “no”), we have stress to manage.  One of the worst ways you can manage that stress is by insulting the customer’s intelligence.  A friend of mine described such a situation to me recently.  She turned down a salesperson, and the salesperson’s response was, “Well, obviously, you just don’t understand what I’m offering.  What questions can I answer?”  After a moment’s shocked silence, she said that the biggest question he could answer was how quickly the meeting could end.  NO SALE.

Look, it’s possible that the customer doesn’t understand your proposal.  Whose fault is that? YOURS, champ!  Not theirs.  A sale happens when need, solution, and timing are all present.

The customer has to have a definite need.

Your solution has to solve the problem – by the CUSTOMER’s agreement and standards, not yours.

And the timing has to be right.

Which means that if the customer said “no,” one of three things has happened:

  1. The need wasn’t present, important, or you didn’t discover the right need. Most of the time, this is the case – too many salespeople do only rudimentary questioning.  Ask comprehensive questions to discover needs, and then confirm with the customer that you have assessed their needs correctly.
  2. What you are selling didn’t solve the needs. Once you have discovered the needs, your presentation must be centered around their needs, not a one-size-fits-all “here’s how we are awesome” slide deck.  And once you have shown your solution, you must confirm that the customer agrees that this will solve the need.  A great question to ask:  “How do you see a win from making this purchase?
  3. You are hitting them at the wrong time. A friend whom I greatly respect always says, “you have to be there when their window is open.”  He’s right.  Ask timing-based questions; for instance, “When would you like to implement this?”  Know you’re at the right time; that way, it won’t surprise you.

And if you do all of those things, customers will still say “no.”  Nothing is perfect in selling.  But when they do say so, instead of telling your customer that they just didn’t understand all the ways you will rock their world, instead you should simply ask your customer why they are saying “no.”  Don’t whine.  Just ask.  Then let the conversation go from there.

You might not win the sale.

But you also won’t get booted out of the office because you expected them to say something that no customer has ever said.

Don’t sell stupid.

Want to fix stupid?  Contact me and let’s talk.

How To Sell To Younger Buyers – The Four C’s

There’s a youth movement afoot, and if you’re not on board with how to sell to younger buyers, you’re going to get run over by it. Purchasing power and corporate leadership is shifting.  Most of the time, I hear salespeople and sales managers bellyaching about how “different” the “new generation” is in terms of their purchasing habits, rather than trying to figure out what those habits are and how to adapt our selling methods to them.

Younger buyers may have different buying habits than you’re used to, but they ARE buying, and what you don’t understand about trends in purchasing is costing you money.  For the last couple of years, I’ve been talking to people at conferences who want nothing more to demystify the art and science of selling to younger buyers (for the purposes of this article, let’s just say that the dividing line between “younger” and “not younger” is 40).  Well, I’m here to help.  Let’s stop bellyaching and start learning.

The skill of selling to younger buyers can be summed up with 4 C’s: Concision, Connection, Collaboration, and Consideration.

  • Concision: Concision is the art of being concise in your communication. One complaint I hear all the time is, “Troy, younger buyers just don’t want to talk to people in person and they don’t want to see salespeople!”    Younger people are in face to face contact with other people all the time.  We are social creatures, and that trait is not generational.  However, younger buyers want you to get to the point – to be concise.  A younger buyer doesn’t want to sit and talk football for 30 minutes before they discuss business.  If you are in front of them, that means that you need to get to the point and give value for the time spent. Forget the old “fish on the wall” fake rapport tactics – you’ll get tossed out. Ask good questions and make to-the-point, targeted, individualized presentations that improves the buyer’s condition in the time you spend with them.  Hack:  Prepare five great questions about their business to open every new sales call.
  • Connection: Younger people are the most connected generation(s) that the world has ever seen, and this is due of course to technology. It’s not unusual for younger people to have friends literally all over the world.  Have they met all of those people face to face? Probably not – but through technology, they have fostered connections.  That means that they have a larger business network than could have ever been dreamed of decades ago.  That also means that they want to be connected with YOU.  How much do you use LinkedIn?  Hint – just putting up a rudimentary profile is not “using” LinkedIn.  If you aren’t posting, commenting, and engaging with other people, they’ll see it.  When you approach a younger buyer, they are likely to check you out on LinkedIn within 24 hours.  If your presence is found wanting, you will be less likely to become a business connection to them.  Staying off of business social media is an outdated strategy.  Hack:  Set your browser’s home page to LinkedIn, so that every day when you fire up the computer, it’s staring you right in the face.  You’d be amazed at how much you can get done in 15 minutes a day.
  • Collaboration: Studies show that the average buyer today has completed 57% of his or her buying process before ever seeing a sales rep.  Younger people are researchers, and when they bring knowledge to a sales call, they expect it to be part of the conversation.  More than that, they want to be active partners in the purchasing process – hence, collaboration.  A salesperson who doesn’t respect the buyer’s journey is going to lose out.  Worse, a salesperson to takes it upon themselves to explain to the buyer why everything they have learned is incorrect will mightily anger the buyer.  When the younger buyer comes to the table, expect that buyer to be current on the offerings of your competitors and how they compare.  Are YOU that current?  Hack:  One of the first questions you should ask a buyer is, “What have you done thus far in this purchasing process?”
  • Current: There are still many salespeople out there who are technophobes.  If that’s you, you are setting your own expiration date.  Being “current” means being up to date on the technology that affects your customers’ buying process and communication needs.  In today’s world, if you don’t know how to use video conferencing platforms, social media, IM, and text, AT A MINIMUM, you’re limiting your potential for success.  Why do you need to be comfortable in all of these platforms?  Because you need to meet your customers where they are – and they might be in a number of different places, in terms of communication.  I have one client that is nearly impossible to reach by phone, but if I text him, I have a response within minutes.  If I refused to text (as a salesperson told me last week that he did), I’d never get ahold of him.  Hack:  Ask your customers (not just the younger ones) what they prefer for communication.  Then communicate the way they want to.

Are younger buyers different?  Somewhat, for reasons both cultural and technological.  But they are still people, and they are still individuals.  By now, you should have noticed that none of my four C’s put all younger people in one bucket.  The real art of selling to younger people is to recognize who they are as individuals, be adaptive to meet them where they are, and respect their skills, processes, and abilities.  We’ll delve into this topic a lot more as 2023 continues, but the four C’s should give you a good starting point.

No Customer Ever Navigation Chart: The Email That Begins With “Re:.”

No Customer Ever Video

Okay, who likes to be lied to?  Raise your hands.  You in the back – put your hand down.  You look stupid.

I see salespeople and marketers who lie every day to their customers and still expect to sell to them.  In fact, they begin their relationships with a lie and still expect to sell to them.

That’s stupid.

When you use a tactic like beginning a cold email with “Re:,” to attempt to fool your prospect into thinking you had a dialogue with them, not only will they delete the email – they’ll delete any chance of buying from you.

Why? Because you are a LIAR.  And – I know this is shocking – people don’t like to buy from liars.

So, what is a salesperson to do when it comes to cold email prospecting?  Well, there are a few pointers I can offer you.

First – understand that return rates for emails are low.  The rule of thumb for direct mail used to be a 1% to 2% response rate.  I think that would be a high rate for email prospecting; if you’re going to send out prospecting emails, be prepared to send a lot of them.

Second – rather than lying in your subject line for attention, think clickbait.  In a business sense, your prospecting should be problem solution oriented.  What problems can you solve for them, and how can you communicate that in as concise and impactful a way as possible?

Third – your email itself should also be concise and impactful.  Get your message across with as little fluff as possible.  You want to make good use of your client’s time, so give them the meat of the matter in something that only takes them a few seconds to read.

Fourth – no attachments.  Attachments are the kiss of death; they get your email sent to the spam folder.

Fifth – everything should be brand consistent.  I don’t just mean your company’s brand, but also your personal brand.  That’s why deception is bad; unless you are a liar by nature, lying in an email just to get attention is the wrong path.

There’s more to prospecting, of course, but those are topics for the future.

Don’t sell stupid.  If no customer has ever said they like it, don’t do it.

#saleshack:  Work with me.

I Love Negotiating With Your Boss! – #nocustomerever

 

Can we agree that making the customer negotiate with the boss is stupid?  No customer has ever said how much they loved negotiating with “the boss.”  As I promised in the video, let’s fix stupid.

“Boss Negotiation” happens because the boss doesn’t trust the salesperson to make an acceptable profit on the deal, so the boss must be “the bad guy” in order to help the salesperson hold price.  I have a sneaking suspicion that many sales managers do this because they like the control, as well.

The problem is that this disempowers the salesperson and makes the customer think, “Well, why don’t I just talk directly to the boss?”  In fact, many customers say this outright.

It’s wasteful for the salesperson and annoying to the customer.

Worse, in my experience, the achieved final price actually ends up LOWER than what it is when the salesperson handles their own negotiation – thus defeating the purpose (I think this is because the salesperson is so devalued in the customer’s eyes).  So, how about we stop doing it?  Here are a few keys to getting away from this:

If you are the sales manager:

  1. Teach your salespeople how your company makes money. I don’t just mean that you sell goods and services at a price; teach your salespeople about all of the moving parts that go into generating an acceptable profit.  I find that most salespeople will be good agents of the company and protectors of the company’s profit if they know this information.  Keeping them dumb is dumb.
  2. Establish pricing guidelines that salespeople can use in the field so that they don’t have to come back to the batcave to get pricing and proposals. When salespeople can quote price on the spot, they become more important in the customer’s eyes.  Part of this process is having a high/low set of guardrails around pricing – or even better, a pricing matrix like the rate cards used in advertising and media with brackets for pricing.
  3. Teach your salespeople how to quote price in a definite fashion and how to negotiate on their own. Yes – this means you give up some control.  The time you save can be used to coach your salespeople and develop their skills; that’s a win/win.
  4. Make it safe for salespeople to say ‘no’ to bad business, and stand up for them when they do. There’s nothing worse than being a salesperson who says ‘no’ to a deal that the boss won’t accept – and then finding out later that the boss would have accepted it (because there is information you haven’t been told by your boss).  Ask me how I know this.  If the salesperson turns down a deal that’s outside the guardrails you set for them, it’s your job to stand by them and praise them for making a good decision.
  5. Finally, say ‘no’ as a last resort for when salespeople come in with a bad deal. If you’ve done steps 1-4, they already know that they are bringing you a bad deal, so the ‘no’ won’t be a surprise.  Even so, use it as a coaching moment to help them not bring you bad business in the future.

If you are the salesperson:

  1. Be a businessperson that is a good steward of company profits, not just a salesperson who is trying to get any deal that you can. This means being assertive about learning how your company makes money and the role that you play in it.    Then live it.
  2. Don’t make anyone else “the bad guy” in negotiation. “This is what my boss needs me to do” shouldn’t come out of your mouth.  “This is what I need” or “This is what my company needs” are acceptable – YOU are the representative of your company.
  3. Hold price and don’t bring your boss junk deals. The principle here is that you, the salesperson, are trustworthy and able to be a good guardian of profit.  So be that.
  4. Don’t ever sell JUST on price. You should be able to come up with at least two solid non-price reasons for the customer to switch their business to you.  If you can’t, don’t bother – if you win them on price, you’ll lose them on price.

Selling this way is empowering and professional for the salesperson and sales manager, it’s a lot more fun, and it produces a better buying experience for the customer.  And better buying experiences lead to stronger relationships and higher profits.

How to be Disruptive in Sales

“Disruptive” is a word that’s frequently used an infrequently understood.  To be “disruptive” is to blow up current expectations and patterns, and set new expectations and patterns.  Our profession of selling is one that could use some disruption.  According to a recent HubSpot survey, salespeople are one of the least trusted professions.  Only 3% of people say that they trust salespeople!  At least we beat out politicians, so there’s that. Still – it’s time to update and change.

Any profession with a 3% trust rating needs some work.  The problem is that our customers have been telling us for years how they want to be treated, and we ignore them.  We focus on “Sales Processes” instead of the Buyer’s Journey.  We ask limited questions.  We hold back critical information thinking that we’re giving out “free consulting.”  In short, when customers have the chance to kick salespeople out of the process, they usually take it.  The good news is that this leaves a lot of ways to be disruptive in sales.  Here are three:

  1. Be transparent.  Today, the ultimate sales flex is transparency; customers don’t want to fight for critical information.  Those fine-print contract terms?  Put ‘em on your website so that customers can read them before you visit.  Publish pricing.  Be aware of, and reactive to, your online reviews.  You can either embrace transparency or have it forced upon you. And if you’re scared of putting your information out there, don’t be.  It’s out there anyway.  Technology has made it so that there aren’t any secrets – and if you don’t look like you’re trying to keep secrets, customers will trust you more.

    This also means that you should stay current on what information is out there about you and your company.  Did you get a bad Google review?  Chances are that your prospects will become aware of it.  Be ready to discuss it with them, openly and honestly.  Someone has ripped your company on Glassdoor?  Same thing – be informed, ready, and candid.

  2. Ask your customer how they want to buy. Again – your sales process is “you” focused – be “them” focused. Being “them” focused is one of the easiest and best ways to be disruptive in sales.  I learned how to be disruptive in sales when I was 19; I just didn’t recognize that I was doing so.  I had a job selling mens’ suits at a large department store in Topeka, KS.  Topeka was not a big ‘suit wearing’ city, and most of my customers were coming in to buy a suit for an occasion – a graduation, a funeral, or a wedding.  We all know what retail salespeople do, right?  They say, “Can I help you?”  The customer, knowing their line in this play, quickly says, “Just looking.”  In other words, “leave me alone.”  I did that for a little while, and then one day this couple came in.  The man looked decidedly like he was there under protest.  So instead of the standard question, I asked him, “So, how do you like to shop?”

    He stared at me for a moment and then grumbled, “Well, I really don’t.”  I smiled and said, “Let me guess.  You’re here because someone is graduating, someone died, or someone is getting married, right?”  At that, he smiled and said, “Yeah, my daughter is getting married and I need a suit.”  I quickly sized him up and walked him to his size on the rack (48 regular, if I remember right).  He grabbed the most conservative blue suit on the rack and said, “That’ll do.”  I stopped him, agreeing that it would do the job for the wedding – but what if I hooked him up with a suit that was equally acceptable for the wedding, but had a little more flair?  That way he could wear it with a sport shirt to take his wife out for a nice dinner.  At this, his wife perked up and elbowed him.  He said that this might be possible – so I found a windowpane plaid suit, paired it up with a dress shirt and tie, and then found a couple of sport shirts to try on with it.  I’ll never forget the look on his wife’s face when he came out of the dressing room.  Suffice it to say that I bet that he had a very good evening.  I sold him two suits, two sport shirts, and a shirt and tie.  After that experience, that’s what I did – and the older guys never could figure out how a punk kid was outselling them.

    I was being disruptive by breaking the customer’s expected patterns, and instead working with them to help them buy in the way they wanted to.  I made the customer a genuine partner in the process – and it worked.  It will work for you, too.

  3. Give free advice. Salespeople are petrified of giving “free consulting,” meaning that they want to hold back their prescriptions for solving the customer’s need until they feel that they have a deal.  The fear is that the customer will take their advice to another vendor, get a cheaper price, and buy elsewhere.  This fear ignores two essential facts.  First – customers eventually buy from the vendor they want to.  If you aren’t that vendor, you’ve done a lousy job of showing the customer your value.  Second – the knowledge that the customer wants and needs is out there.  Remember that whole “technology” thing we were talking about.  Giving the customer essential knowledge is one way to build a relationship that is based on openness and trust.  “Don’t be a free consultant” is one of those old philosophies that has been made obsolete.  Remember – there are no trade secrets today.

Most of the time, when “disruptive” is used in a business context, the writer or speaker is referring to technology.  In our profession, tech is vital – but technique can be even more disruptive.  Going against the grain in a way that your customers want is the best, and most profitable, way you can be disruptive every day.

Why “Buy Now or No Deal” is STUPID – #nocustomerever

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I’ll be honest – I thought this technique was dead.  I like to think that my finger is on the pulse of my profession nonstop, 24/7/365.  Surely THIS old, hackneyed technique would be dead as a doornail, right?  You would think.  As educated and savvy as buyers have become, and as much information is available to them, there’s really no excuse for salespeople to continue to think that this old saw would still cut.

Then it happened.  I was buying a piece of equipment for my garage (as I am wont to do), and the salesman said, “And if you’ll buy now, I’ll knock $50 off!”  I was actually ready to buy the thing, and I didn’t even need the discount.  But as much as I’m a car guy, I’m always The Sales Navigator.  And I couldn’t help myself.  This was on a Friday.  I replied, “So, if I come back Monday and I’m ready to buy, cash in hand, you won’t give me the $50 off?”

The salesman’s jaw dropped and he said, “uhhhh…..uhhhh.”  As salespeople are wont to do when a customer hoists them by their own petard.  Like it says in the video, I was there, but only once.  I had the feeling this wasn’t this guy’s first time, which made it worse.  I smiled, gently explained to him what I do, and told him that he might try a different technique.  And then, since I wanted the equipment, I went ahead and bought.

How could he avoided this?  There are a few ways:

  1. Understand the customer’s priorities. A sale happens when there is a need, a solution, and the timing is right.  Any one of those three components can derail your sale.  Even if your solution truly does address the customer’s need, if that need isn’t the highest priority for the customer, the timing won’t be right.  Asking good questions to understand the priorities is the best way to understand timing.
  2. Ask time-frame questions early. You should ask your time-frame questions well before you attempt to close the sale.  Your questions should be centered around the desired time of delivery or use, not around the timing of the decision itself.  When customers make a buying decision, they want immediate gratification; if that isn’t possible, it’s on you to let them know.
  3. Ask checking questions. Never assume things. Don’t assume that the need you are trying to solve is an important need to the buyer.  Don’t assume that they agree that your solution works.
  4. Ask the customer how they see a gain in buying. This is a great pre-proposal question; if the customer has a good answer, they are basically selling your product or service back to you.  If they don’t have an answer?  You’ve missed something.
  5. Listen. This should be obvious, but listen to the answers you’re given, and act on them.  Respect your customers and their intelligence.

“Buy now or the deal can’t happen” is stupid selling. We can fix stupid. Don’t be that guy.  Come up with other ways to get the sale moving that don’t require dishonesty, and you will be more successful

9 Ways to Be More Productive

This is an answer to a question that I get asked every now and then.  “Troy, how do you get and stay productive?”  I’ve found 9 ways to be more productive.  I’ll be honest enough to say that my own productivity system has been a work in progress for most of my career, and it will continue to be so (I’m always learning).  Some of the techniques have come from reading, most from practice, and many from my passion for building race cars and hot rods.

Yes, I said race cars and hot rods.  It’s a hobby that has taught me a lot over the years about problem solving and work habits.  There’s no such book as ‘Seven Habits of Highly Productive Gearheads,’ but if there were, some of the habits below might be in it.

Game-plan every day:  This seems obvious – but many people don’t do it, and in fact, I didn’t do it for many years.  Every day has a game plan for me.  The obvious components of the plan are ‘live’ activities – appointments, speaking engagements, and the like – but I always have some phone calls to make, some tasks, and some work on at least one long-term project.  I also plan in my personal projects (I still work on cars and motorcycles) and my workout time.  Rigid?  Yes.  But planning all this is what gives me time for fun, believe it or not.

Write it down:  OK, call me a Luddite if you wish, but my game plan is always written down with a pen on real paper in a real (inexpensive) planning pad (it’s fun –and here it is).  I’ve tried using the task management components of Outlook (I use Outlook for my contacts and appointments), but I find that it’s too easy – at least for me – to simply put a new date on an old task.  Writing implies permanence and commitment (which are also reasons that handwritten thank-you notes are particularly effective, but that’s a different story).  I like CRM and use it – but there’s still a place in my world for a pen and paper.

Make appointments with yourself:  My phone calls are programmed into my day, including the time slot that I’ll be making them.  Particularly for telephone prospectors, it’s vital that you block time into your schedule – ESPECIALLY for those parts of your job that you don’t love.  If you don’t, it’s too easy to slide them off.

Checklists are great:  I like lists.  I like them a lot because they keep me focused.  Again, this is a benefit of writing things down instead of using Outlook.  For me there’s a satisfaction involved with taking a pen and checking an item off my list.

Touch big projects every day:  This is one that I learned from racing and hot rodding.  Sometimes a car build can stretch out over years, and if you lose momentum on one….well, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are full of aborted projects being sold at a heavy discount.  You lose momentum by taking one day off, then another, then another…..and soon your project is gathering dust and you can’t remember where you left off.  When I’m working on a car, I touch it every day, even if it’s just to change a light bulb or do a little sanding on a fender.  When I do this, I never lose momentum and I never lose track.  This method has segued over to business projects, as well.  To write Sell Like You Mean It!, I spent an hour every day working on the manuscript for six months.

Work ahead:  If you’re making calls today for appointments tomorrow, you’re already sunk.  Don’t be that guy or gal.  Instead, work well ahead.  This article was written two weeks before I posted it.  Why?  Because I was inspired, and my own history tells me that when I get inspired to write an article, I’d better go ahead and write it, even though I might have a couple of articles ahead of it in line.

Stop when you have to:  One of the things that I’ve learned through painful experience with my cars is that, sometimes, it’s best to stop in the middle of a task or project if you’re thrown a curveball, and reapproach it with fresh eyes later.  A couple of months ago it was late in the evening and I was installing a part on my old Mercury, and I was determined to get it done that night.  The problem was that a bolt hole wasn’t lining up and I was starting to cross-thread a bolt.  Now, intellectually, I know that this is bad and that I should stop – but I didn’t.  Instead I turned the ratchet harder (perhaps hoping that the bolt gods would smile upon me and magically make the bolt line up), and messed up the threads.  At least now I stopped.  The next day, I got a tap, recut the thread on the Mercury’s frame, and as I was doing it, an easy method for making the parts line up popped into my head.  Ten minutes later it was done.  I could have saved myself quite a bit of time if I’d stopped when things started to go bad.

Find your idea time:  We all have times during the day when our mind is unfettered and is likely to give us great (and, honestly, sometimes not so great) ideas.  For me, that’s the last hour before bed.  I need to keep my mind unoccupied with important tasks (so, no business work during that time), and I need to keep my planner handy so I can capture those ideas.  What do I do during that time?  I watch TV, I read something unrelated to business…..but I am ready to grab a good idea when it hits me.  Find yours and use it.

Keep a diary:  Okay, okay….if you prefer to call it a ‘journal,’ go right ahead. I suppose that’s more manly.  On the other hand, George Patton called his a ‘diary,’ so I think I’m OK on that count. At the end of every day, I write a little summary of the day in the same planner book that I use to plan my day.  I do this for two reasons:  First, I want to see if I accomplished my mission for the day. Second, sometimes the big success of the day wasn’t planned, and I like to keep track of positives.  I do this because it makes me my own accountability partner.  I never want to write “pretty pointless day,” so I strive to make it a day that advances me somehow.

There’s one other aspect that I didn’t mention, because it’s highly individualized.  Do what works for you.  You don’t have to use all my 9 ways to be more productive; heck, you don’t have to use any of them if you have a system that really works for you.  But you should have a system and you should faithfully execute it, day in and day out.  Until I did, I often had days where I sat in the evening wondering where the day went and why it didn’t produce a result.

How to Develop Your Selling Skills

Last week, we talked about the need for salespeople to build and expand their selling skills in order to adapt to, and compete with, artificial intelligence.  This week, let’s talk about exactly HOW to develop your selling skills.  “But, Troy, I work on my selling skills all the time!”  No, you probably don’t, if you’re like most salespeople.

I ran a poll on the biggest LinkedIn sales group.  I asked, “On the average, how much time per week do you spend improving and practicing your sales skills, not counting time you spend selling?”  The results were about as I expected:  “Less than one hour” – 48%; “1-2 hours” – 32%; “2-5 hours” – 13%; “more than 5 hours” – 7%.  That old 80/20 rule really is looking valid on this one.  So, how should you be practicing?

My recommendation is this:  Pick one critical skill of selling, and work on it each week.  Next week, pick a different one, and so on.  That will keep you from getting bored and falling into a rut.  The critical skills are:

Prospecting:  Work on your approach.  There’s no prospecting approach that can’t be made better; in many cases, making it shorter makes it better.  Your initial approach statement should be 10-15 seconds – no more.  That goes for telephone prospecting (you do that, right?) or live, face to face prospecting.  Refine it, hone it, improve it, and test it.

Questioning:  The most important skill set in questioning.  Develop two new, great questions to ask a prospect.  Practice them, and more importantly, practice LISTENING ACTIVELY to the answers.  Repeat and refine.

Presenting:  You already know that I don’t like one size fits all presentations.  However, I do like a “modular presentation,” where you are prepared at a moment’s notice to present on different benefit/feature combinations, or aspects of your service.  Think of it as a mental “slide deck” where the slides can be rearranged, inserted, and deleted on the spot.  Practice one “slide” per week.

Proposing:  Present price and terms confidently and in a way that doesn’t invite distrust or uncertainty.

Closing:  Practice getting comfortable with asking simple, to the point, closing questions – and then shutting up.

Handling objections:  Make a list of common objections, and then come up with your first, best response to each one.  Practice clarifying, isolating, and resolving objections.

As I said, rotate these around to stay fresh and incrementally build your skills over the long haul.  And practice.  Most salespeople don’t practice skills except in front of the customer.  That’s dumb.  In front of the customer, mistakes cost you money.  In your office, it costs you nothing except a little time and a little pride (if anyone else sees).

And here’s the mentality you should use in your practice.  Some of you know that I am a former and reformed wrestling fan (today’s product is just insulting to the intelligence, in my opinion).  Still, I like listening to podcast interviews of past wrestling personalities.  It’s mind candy for when I drive, and I drive a lot – but occasionally, something really profound emerges.

One such profundity came from a wrestler and wrestling trainer named Dr. Tom Prichard.  The host and Prichard were discussing a particular dangerous wrestling move that had been botched on a recent show, and could have caused paralysis or even death.  Prichard said, “People shouldn’t do moves that they don’t know how to do.”

The host agreed and said, “Practice till you get it right, right?”

Prichard said, “Nope.  Practice until you can’t get it WRONG.”

Wow.  That’s pretty profound, isn’t it?  There’s a big difference, as I thought about it, between “until you get it right” and “until you can’t get it wrong,” and it’s the difference between conscious thought and habit.  I encourage you to follow Dr. Tom’s advice.  Whatever technique you are working on, practice it to the point that you can’t get it wrong, and you won’t.  How much does that take?

It depends on you and your mental makeup.  Studies show that habits form at 21 repetitions.  Maybe it takes that much for some techniques; maybe it takes less than others.  I’d suggest that when you realize that you aren’t having to invest the same level of conscious thought to get through a particular technique, you’ve got it.  Then, when you’re in front of the customer, that conscious thought can be invested in paying attention to the customer, their reactions, and their words.

Because – even though they aren’t practicing the way you are – the customer is always the star of this particular show.  Don’t forget it, and keep working to develop your selling skills.